Towards provable security for ad hoc routing protocols

Abstract

We propose a formal framework for the security analysis of on-demand source routing protocols for wireless ad hoc networks. Our approach is based on the well-known simulation paradigm that has been proposed to prove the security of cryptographic protocols. Our main contribution is the application of the simulation approach in the context of ad hoc routing. This involves a precise definition of a real-world model, which describes the real operation of the protocol, and an ideal-world model, which captures what the protocol wants to achieve in terms of security. Both models take into account the peculiarities of wireless communications and ad hoc routing. Then, we give a formal definition of routing security in terms of indistinguishability of the two models from the point of view of honest parties. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by analyzing two "secure" ad hoc routing protocols, SRP and Ariadne. This analysis leads to the discovery of as yet unknown attacks against both protocols. Finally, we propose an ad hoc routing protocol that can be proven secure in our model.

Analysing Routing Protocols: Four Nodes Topologies Are Sufficient

“…This test and many others (e.g. [21,15]) can be easily modelled using functions over terms. Clearly, not all functions over terms are meaningful to model protocols.…”

“…For the SRP protocol, we recover the attack mentioned in [15] with the topology given in Example 5, and from the initial configuration:…”

“…For example, the SRP protocol [26] is a generic construction for securing protocols. However, applied to DSR [23], a standard routing protocol, it has been shown to be flawed, allowing an attacker to modify the route, making the source node to accept an invalid route [15]. This shows that the design of secure routing protocols is difficult and error-prone.…”

Compact Stimulation Mechanism for Routing Discovery Protocols in Civilian Ad-Hoc Networks

“…This approach is based on endairA [6] and [3]. In endairA, the initiator of the route discovery process generates a route request, which contains the identifiers of the initiator and the target, and a randomly generated query identifier.…”

NCTS-DCR: Node Centric Trust based Secure Dynamic Source Routing Protocol

“…Routing standards for MANETS have been initiated and also various methods have been suggested to safeguard the different ad hoc routing standards like SRP, SAODV, Ariadne, ARAN, SADSR, SEAD and SLSP. Futile attempts have been made to safeguard these standards which are heavily susceptible due to erratic nature of the reserved hosts and deficiency in securing hardware, for which Buttya"n and Vajda [4] and Acs et al [5,6,7]proposed methods to secure them.…”